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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1128 



was nearly all sold as high-grade concentrates, 

 but a large part of the Colorado ore sold was 

 of low percentage and had to be milled and 

 concentrated, with consequent expense and 

 loss. 



From Nevada 461 tons, valued at $1,432,000, 

 and from Arizona 175 tons, worth $565,000, 

 are estimated to have been shipped. Smaller 

 quantities were mined in Alaska, Connecticut, 

 Idaho, Missouri, New Mexico, South Dakota, 

 Utah and Washington. 



Not only were the output and prices unique, 

 but the ratio of the several tungsten minerals 

 produced was different from that of other 

 countries of large production. The quantities 

 and values were approximately as follows: 

 Eerberite, 1,495 tons, $3,590,000; scheelite, 

 1,404 tons, $4,322,000; wolframite, 201 tons, 

 $613,000; and hiibnerite, 185 tons, $587,000. 



In most countries the prevailing mineral is 

 wolframite, and no other country approaches 

 the United States in the quantity of ferberite 

 or scheelite produced. The scheelite comes 

 mostly from Atolia, Calif., but significant 

 quantities are mined in Nevada, Arizona, 

 Idaho and Connecticut. 



The tremendous increase of prices caused 

 by the need for " high speed " tools to cut war 

 steel ordered by the governments of Europe of 

 course caused the great increase in production. 

 Prices at the beginning of the year were irreg- 

 ular and depended on the buyer's need of the 

 ore and probably on his fear of the possibility 

 of not being able to get it when he might need 

 it even more. Ores carrying 60 per cent, 

 tungsten trioxide brought at that time as 

 much as $66 a unit, but by the last of March 

 some ferberite sold for $93.50 a unit at the 

 mills, and even higher prices were quoted in 

 the newspapers, though they could not be con- 

 firmed. The prices of the same ore in the 

 New York market would naturally be some- 

 what higher. Under the stimulus of these 

 high prices production, not only in this coun- 

 try but in the world at large, has been at the 

 highest point ever known. At first the sud- 

 den demand created by the orders for war steel 

 were far ahead of the instant productive power 

 of the country. The rapid increase in prices, 

 starting last fall at a time when tungsten min- 



ing was at a low ebb and culminating in the 

 undreamed maximum mentioned, caused pros- 

 pecting and consequent discoveries of new de- 

 posits, increase of development of known de- 

 posits, the operating at high tension of old 

 mills, and the hasty building of new mills. As 

 a result, the production increased faster than 

 the consumption and soon overran the demand 

 that would absorb the output at the extremely 

 high prices prevailing, so that a drop in prices 

 was inevitable. June closed with the price 

 around $25 a unit, which was still much higher 

 than any price known before this year. The 

 highest price previously reported to the Geo- 

 logical Survey was $15 a unit, paid in 1907. 

 The normal price has been $6 to $7. 



During the six months under consideration 

 40 mills of various types and sizes were in 

 operation part or all of the time on tungsten 

 ores, and, at the end of June, 14 were under 

 construction. 



In the tungsten mining camps the excite- 

 ment that followed the increase of prices was 

 similar to that caused by important gold dis- 

 coveries. Nederland, Colo., a little village of 

 two or three dozen homes, suddenly became a 

 town of 3,000 or more inhabitants. East of 

 Nederland two settlements, each containing 

 several hundred people, sprang into existence. 

 Atolia, Calif., a camp of 60 or 80 people, grew 

 to more than a thousand. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



The Paris Academy of Sciences on June 26 

 elected as corresponding members Dr. Ramon 

 y Cajal of Madrid to fill the place of M. Perez 

 in the section of anatomy and zoology, and Dr. 

 Morat, professor of physiology at Lyons, to 

 succeed Dr. Zambaco Pasha in the section of 

 medicine and surgery. 



Dr. E. Perroncito, professor of bacteriology 

 at the University of Turin, and Professor Kita- 

 sato, director of the bacteriologic institute at 

 Tokyo, have been elected foreign members of 

 the Paris Academy of Medicine. 



Professor Hugo de Vries, professor of the 

 University of Amsterdam and director of the 

 Botanical Garden, has removed his residence 

 to Lunteren, where he is building a small 



